EXTERNAL ANATOMY CHESTS. 33 
it has again perched. During spring, indeed, when 
m company with the other sex, the male always carries 
It erect, although, when the bird is killed, it seems to 
disappear : many of the tyrant flycatchers of America 
exhibit, in the same manner, what may be called the ru- 
diments of a simply pointed crest, which is the first and 
most simple of all those that are moveable : examples 
of this form are very numerous, and exhibit a progres- 
sive development of the feathers, the longest of which 
are either placed on the vertex or highest part of 
the crown of the head, or immediately behind, towards 
the nape. 'I’hese feathers are always more or less 
pointed, and rise gradually, one above the other, some- 
what in the shape of a cone. The two extremes of 
this structure may be seen, among our native birds, in 
the common M/iscicapa grlsola and the lapwing plover, 
borne of the most beautiful examples, in foreign or- 
nithology, of this sort of crest, developed to its utmost 
extent, will be found among tbe cockatoos, in the 
splendid Trochilus Tjalandii, the crested boat-bill, and the 
Agami heron, wherein the two or three longest feathers 
very much exceed the others, and assume, towards their 
ends, a gentle and graceful curve upwards. Sometimes, 
however, as in the latter bird, the European chatterer 
{Sombycilln), and the African coly (Colius), the ends 
^e pendant : but this is most conspicuous in the genus 
■^endronemt, or summer ducks.* 
(42.) Radiated, or fan-ehaped crests are not so 
requent as the last, but they are much more beautiful, 
he first or incipient development of this form is seen 
»n those elegant longtailed flycatchers, belonging to 
le subgenus Muscipeta Cuv., where the top of the 
head IS somewhat flattened, and the feathers unusually 
road and round : those in front are not perceptibly 
engthened, but they are slightly so towards the decli- 
J y of the crown ; so that when the feathers are a little 
evated, they assume the form of a flat, semicircular little 
• * I>endr(messasponsa—ga/ericit!ala Sw. North. Zool. ii. p. 497. 
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